Homeless kids are just like our kids. They have similar hopes and dreams. But unlike our kids, they’re washing their hair in Walmart bathrooms. They have no private space to do their homework. No area to play. No place to call home.

Unlike our kids, homeless children know the fear that comes with having their parents first lose their jobs, then their electricity, then their home. And unlike our kids, they know what it’s like to be hungry.

On March 6, CBS “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley turned the spotlight on the problem of poverty and homeless families in Seminole County, Fla. The moving report shattered any stereotypes that we may have held about homeless people.

Homeless people include families who are just like us — people who owned homes, took vacations, bought their children toys — yet were much harder hit by the financial crisis.

Georgia, too, has seen a serious increase in homeless children.

In 2009, Georgia ranked 49 out of 50 states on child homelessness according to America’s Youngest Outcasts: State Report Card on Child Homelessness, a report by The National Center on Family Homelessness.

During the 2006-2007 school year, there were 24,100 homeless children and youth in Georgia.

By 2008-2009, this number had increased by 72 percent to 41,500 homeless children and youth in the state.

“This is unacceptable for this number of children to be living without homes,” Dr. Ellen L. Bassuk, president and founder of the National Center on Family Homelessness, said in a phone interview. “It’s unacceptable for one child to be living without a home.’’

Contributing to the problem is poverty as well as the lack of a living wage and affordable housing and childcare.

“There is no state in the United States where if you worked a full-time minimum wage job, where you can afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment,’’ Bassuk said.

Earlier this month, an alliance of community leaders, homeless service providers and advocates from across the state released the Georgia Plan to End Child Homelessness. The plan calls for coordinated action from the state’s political, business, social service, advocacy, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors to provide for more than 41,500 Georgia children and youth who are homeless annually.

It’s going to take a lot of powerful legislators and advocates and generous donations to end child homelessness in Georgia.

But what can we do to pitch in? Bassuk offered some answers.

The typical homeless Georgia family is a single mother with two children, one of which is younger than 6. In shelters or motels, such families usually stay in one room. Which means little sleep, no alone time and no break for mom.

“These moms don’t have respite care. They don’t have babysitters. Many take their kids everywhere they go,” Bassuk said. “They need a break.”

Such moms could benefit greatly by having volunteers read to or play with their kids or volunteer to help with transportation. The children also are in desperate need for developmentally appropriate play spaces, Bassuk said.

“Ask your local shelter what the needs of their homeless families are,” Bassuk said.

School-age kids are immensely embarrassed about being homeless, Bassuk said. So chances are homeless children will opt to stay in a cramped shelter room rather than go over to friends’ homes after school.

Finding a place to study in a shelter also is an issue. Not surprising, children experiencing homelessness are four times more likely to show delayed development and twice as likely to have learning disabilities as non-homeless children, according to the National Center on Family Homelessness.

Their socializing, learning and stability are more than compromised by homelessness.

Sadly, if child homelessness continues to be overlooked and unnoticed, the problem will get worse. Especially if one of the main causes of child homelessness — poverty — continues to grow.

The government considers a family of four to be impoverished if they take in less than $22,000 a year.

As the “60 Minutes” segment pointed out, based on that standard, and government projections of unemployment, it is estimated the poverty rate for kids in this country will soon hit 25 percent.

Those children would be the largest American generation to be raised in hard times since the Great Depression.

Yes, homeless children and their moms need our help.

Because homeless moms have the same hopes and dreams for their kids as we do for ours.